Question
Our 7 year old boy has been licking things (like most of us would smell). We went to the fair last night and I watched him lick the handle bar of one of the rides. Today, I went outside to check on him and his 4year old brother playing in the yard, and watched him “play sweep” with a branch, then pick it up and lick it as he walked away (he didn’t know I was watching). It seems yo be a compulsive behavior, but I am afraid he’s going to get really sick! How would you handle this?
After many lectures over the past week (and a threat last night to not let him ride rides if he didn’t control himself), I called him inside for a spanking (we give 3 whacks with hand). He immediately denied doing it (lying, which we’ve consistently had problems with, recently when he was caught at school with a pocketknife that we found out him and his older brother had been hiding in our house for two weeks).
He finally admitted to the lying about the stick lickings (when I explained a couple times that I knew what had seem with my own eyes), but I ended up putting him in his bed with no books or toys for the afternoon/evening and early lights out for the lying instead of the spanking. (although I did end up spanking him for the huge fit he threw when I explained he had earned a no-play evening in his room.)
